


Of Kings and Other Nuisances

by biographicalnonsense



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Kings Rising, babysitter nikandros, drunk laurent, is this a crack fic? idek, nikandros is too good for this, seriously he has zero tolerance for this shit anymore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:34:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24165190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/biographicalnonsense/pseuds/biographicalnonsense
Summary: When Nikandros is called for by the king he doesn't expect it to be Laurent. Much less Laurent after what surely has to be several bottles of griva. He didn't sign up for this.
Relationships: Damen & Nikandros (Captive Prince), Damen/Laurent (Captive Prince), Laurent & Nikandros (Captive Prince)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 170





	Of Kings and Other Nuisances

**Author's Note:**

> This is for jove.
> 
> Thanks for keeping me inspired and reminding me just how badly we need some more Nik content!

Nikandros was lost in his book about Veretian history when a knock sounded from the door of the guest chambers. With a sigh, he let the book fall shut and sat up straight on the sofa where he had been lounging up until now.

“Come in.”, he said, and immediately after the door swung open. A slave… no, servant, they weren’t slaves anymore, stepped into the room, his head bowed low. 

“Kyros. The king has requested your presence in the gardens.”, the servant declared and flinched when Nikandros let out an annoyed groan. 

Damen knew he valued his time off after sitting in meetings the whole day, paying attention for his king while Damen was busy fiddling with Laurent beneath the table. 

They couldn’t, in all honesty, believe no one noticed their childlike games. Nikandros had given up on telling Damen to keep it in his pants a long time ago. There was simply no use because, in the end, Damen wasn’t required to listen while Nikandros had no other choice but to follow orders.

“I swear. If this is another minor inconvenience that he could’ve easily solved by himself I’ll quit. I’ll even move to Kempt for fuck’s sake.”, he muttered under his breath as he passed by the servant, adding a short. “You’re dismissed.”

Nikandros made his way through the candlelit halls of the palace. It was colder here up north. He’d gotten used to the hot summer nights in Ios again. Now the breeze sneaking below his chiton felt chilly as he stepped outside.

There were voices coming from one of the fountains. Nikandros couldn’t quite yet make out what they were saying but he swore he could hear Laurent slur out some words. 

After taking a few more turns a most disturbing picture unfolded in front of his eyes. Laurent, the king, was lying on the dirty floor, rolling around laughing while Makedon was sat on one of the benches, an empty bottle of griva in hand.

Upon further inspection, Nikandros could make out 2 more empty bottles lying on the floor. 

“Ahaha, I can’t get up.”, Laurent snickered from where he was on the ground. The laces on his uptight Veretian clothing were loosened down to his chest, exposing a stained undershirt.

“Your highness called for me?”, Nikandros managed to ask as dryly as possible drawing the attention of the two wasted men to himself. 

“Nik, you’re here. Be a darling and… help me up.”, Laurent’s hands shot up grasping the air as if he could find something to hold onto. 

If it were up to him, Nikandros would’ve turned on his heels and banned this night from his memory but there were two reasons keeping him in place. 

First, there was something like pity forming in his stomach seeing Laurent so utterly out of himself. Second, and that reason was much more convincing, Damen would literally rip his head off if he left Laurent to his own devices and the drunkard somehow managed to choke on his own vomit or drown in the fountain.

Sighing, Nikandros reached down and grabbed Laurent’s wrist to pull him up. Luckily his hands wrapped around them easily enough. Actually pulling up the king though proved to be much more difficult. 

It was as if trying to pull up a dead body. Laurent didn’t even seem to think of helping to support his own weight. 

When Nikandros had finally managed to move Laurent into a somewhat standing position he slumped over against Nikandros’ chest in a matter of seconds. 

“Pray tell me why you couldn’t fetch Damen to take care of you?”, Nikandros asked, grimacing at the feeling of drool pooling against his bare chest. 

“I’m self-sufficient.”, Laurent slurred against Nikandros’ skin, his hands grabbing Nikandros’ shoulders hard enough to leave marks. 

“Ah yes, self-sufficient enough to stand on your own then?”, Nikandros raised an eyebrow and made an attempt at taking a step back, Laurent’s weight immediately following suit as he tipped over forwards against Nikandros’ body again. 

“I’ll take you back to your rooms. Will you be fine?”, he posed the question at Makedon who gave a wave with the bottle in his hand. 

“He drank double as much.”, Makedon grinned proudly and got up from the bench he was sitting on. His walk was sloppy and unsure but at least he didn’t look as if he would tip over any minute. 

Nikandros wrapped an arm around Laurent’s waist and hurled him up over his shoulder, his other arm grabbing the back of his thighs to stop Laurent from tipping over and falling face-first to the ground.

“Why didn’t you call for Damen again?”, Nikandros asked as he tried his best not to move too abruptly. The last thing he needed right now was vomit all over himself and Laurent didn’t look like he could take anything remotely harsh anyway.

“We fought.”, Laurent mumbled against Nikandros’ back his hands tightly clutching the fabric of his chiton. 

Nikandros furrowed his brows at that but decided not to press any further. He knew he’d never hear the end of all the little details tomorrow anyway so he could spare himself the drama now. 

Still, they usually never fought so badly that one of them ended leaving their chambers. As far as Nikandros knew which was, much to his dismay, far too much.

“You know. He’s been weird the past few weeks. He doesn’t insist on looking at my face when we…”, Laurent started babbling and Nikandros wished he could erase the mental image of his two kings in bed. 

“I’ve heard enough thank you.”, he managed to choke out but by the breath of warm air against his back he could already tell Laurent wasn’t finished. 

“I thought maybe he wanted someone else. Maybe I wasn’t enough. And when I asked him he was so offended…”, Laurent continued his voice almost inaudible from all the slurring. Nikandros took a deep breath and decided this would probably be over soon enough if he just silently endured, 

“Then he told me I was imagining things. That nothing has changed. But that’s not true. And then I said I need this evening to myself and I threatened him to come after me. And he didn’t. But I wanted him to.”, Laurent continued. The whole story seemed more childish than anything but Nikandros was sure there was something more to it. 

He made a mental note to check in with Damen tomorrow and ask for a sobered up version of the fight. Too much was resting on their union for them to be risking it over some petty fight. As always it was left to Nikandros to hold everything together until the kings thought themselves in a state of mind to deal with it.

The hallway was silent except for some guards talking to each other in muffled voices and Laurent trailing off to some other story that was bothering him. In all honesty, Nikandros was at his wit’s end. He couldn’t take a second more of what was roughly 150 lbs resting uncomfortably on his right shoulder, especially not when it was accompanied by never-ending ‘conversation’ about his best friends sex life. 

Fortunately, the kings’ chambers were close enough and due to Laurent on his shoulder Nikandros wasn’t even required to knock before entering. 

“I heard there’s been a king missing.”, Nikandros walked in only to find Damen hunched over the desk, quill in hand. Nevertheless, it took all of Nikandros’ willpower not to throw Laurent onto the bed and leave right away. 

Damen turned around, his eyes widening as he took in the picture displaying before him. Nikandros couldn’t help the condescending smile forming on his lips. After all the troubles of getting Laurent back to the chambers he wouldn’t be the one having to deal with the real aftermath of Laurent’s drinking spree. The fact that Damen was forced to see Laurent in such a state was more than comforting enough. 

Maybe, just maybe, he’d finally stop putting Laurent onto a pedestal. Nikandros would make 3 crosses if that day ever came around. 

When Damen had finally realized that, yes, Nikandros was carrying his lover he rushed over and took Laurent out of Nikandros’ hands. 

“I’ll tell the servants to fetch some water and a bucket before I go.”, Nikandros sighed as Damen brushed loose strands of blonde hair out of Laurent’s face, inspecting him as if he was some kind of precious silk. 

“Wait!”, Laurent called out and grabbed at Nikandros’ chiton once more. By now the fabric was probably wrinkled everywhere. 

“Yes?”, Nikandros tried his best to sound amiable but with every second passing he was running out of more patience. This was supposed to be his own time. A time where he shouldn’t have to worry about what the kings were up to, they had servants too after all.

“Thank you.”, Laurent mumbled as his arms wrapped tightly around Nikandros. A warmth spread in Nikandros’ chest. He’d never say it out loud but maybe Laurent had the potential to actually be tolerable. 

“Yes, thank you, Nik.”, Damen smiled at both of them as if he was just witnessing the birth of his first child. Nikandros got slightly uncomfortable and gently pushed Laurent away who plopped onto the bed with a sigh. 

“Training tomorrow?”, before Nikandros could leave he felt Damen’s warm hand on his arm. He didn’t even need to apply pressure the touch alone was enough to make Nikandros yield for his king. 

“Only if I don’t have to put up with him hungover.”, Nikandros cocked his head in Laurent’s direction. Damen simply replied with a repressed laugh and withdraw his hand from Nikandros’ arm. 

“I needed to get you alone anyways. I want your opinion on something.”, Damen glanced at Laurent nervously, his mind most obviously not with Nikandros anymore.

“I’ll meet you in the arena at dawn. Don’t keep me waiting.”, Nikandros gave Damen’s shoulder a gentle squeeze before turning around and finally leaving the kings’ chambers. 

He was honestly afraid of whatever Damen was planning. Surely he was planning something. That would explain the strange behavior Laurent had complained about. Damen had never been good at keeping a secret.

\---------------

The next morning Nikandros was tempted to bail on Damen and stay in bed for some hours more. The events of last night had robbed him of too much sleep to his liking.

However, if Nikandros didn’t give Damen his honest opinion on whatever topic it was that was on the king's mind, he’d sure enough just go through with the plan even if it was completely reckless and utterly stupid. 

So Nikandros really had no other choice but to let out a groan and roll out of bed. A servant was already standing in the corner of the room, ready to attend. 

The servant dressed Nikandros in his training armor. While trained hands tied the leather in place Nikandros allowed himself to close his eyes for just a moment more. 

When he arrived in the arena Nikandros wasn’t exactly surprised to find in empty. Damen had never been one to show up on time after all. 

With a sigh he grabbed one of the spears feeling the smooth wood against his skin. It had been a while since he’d last practiced. Ever since he arrived at the palace his days had been packed with meetings and official dinners and the usual diplomatic affairs. 

The spear was heavy in his hand and Nikandros could feel his muscles strain as he lifted it over his head and threw it in the direction of one of the targets. It didn’t hit as far in the middle as he’d hoped. Apparently he’d gotten rusty.

“You don’t throw it like you used to.”, Damen’s voice commented from behind him with a teasing tone to it. 

“How gracious of you to finally bless me with your presence.”, Nikandros said dryly, set to ignore the underlying insult of Damen’s comment.

“It’s still dawn, isn’t it?”, Damen chuckled and threw up his hands defensively. “Plus, I had to be extra careful when sneaking out. Don’t want to wake a monster from its slumber.”

“I’m sure you’d deserve to have to deal with the monster.”, Nikandros grimaced and went to pull the spear back out from the target. 

“I didn’t do anything wrong though!”, Damen protested as he made his way to grab two swords throwing one over to Nikandros who luckily reacted in time to catch it before it could impale him. 

“I was told otherwise just yesterday. In case you remember _I_ was the one who had to take care of Laurent.”, Nikandros groaned, tossing the spear to the side and circling the sword in his right hand. 

“No, I will not recall what he told me and I will certainly not repeat it.”, he added with a roll of his eyes before Damen could start pressing for more details. It was already enough that Nikandros had to deal with them in the first place.

Damen pouted, making him look like a child before he struck his first blow. Nikandros brought his sword up and blocked it leisurely. The clash of metal against metal ringing through the arena. 

“You wanted my opinion on something?”, Nikandros grinned and attacked next. A swing to Damen’s left which was promptly met by Damen’s sword in defense.

“Ah, yes. Soo you know how we’ve been sharing a bed and all…”, Damen started off, the topic obviously distracted him because he slipped up in his footwork, making way for Nikandros’ sword to strike a hit to Damen’s right shoulder with its blunt side. 

“Ouch.”, Damen complained as he readied himself for his revenge. Nikandros would be damned to give him the satisfaction though, every little muscle in his body was focused on not losing.

“Maybe if you’d stop thinking with your dick it wouldn’t be so easy for me to hit you.”, Nikandros grinned, satisfaction spreading through his whole body. He’d really missed their sparring sessions lately.

“I’m not thinking with my dick. I want to ask him to marry me.”, Damen declared and Nikandros could hear his sword clatter on the ground. Of all the things he’d expected to hear from Damen this had not been on the list. 

“What about heirs?”, Nikandros managed to let out, voicing the most obvious concern everyone in the whole kingdom would probably have. 

“I don’t know. We’ll find a way.”, Damen let his sword dangle beside him and shrugged.

“Have you not seen him last night? You can’t possibly tell me you want to marry him after that.”, Nikandros grimaced but he could tell from the glint in Damen’s eyes that here was no way to talk him out of it. His mind had already been set, probably weeks ago. 

To change his mind now would be an impossible task, even for Nikandros. At least he’d been given a fair warning before he was left cleaning up all the mess their marriage might cause. 

Unless Laurent said no. But after what Nikandros had heard yesterday that was something highly unlikely. 

Nikandros took a deep breath and went to pick up his sword. He could feel Damen’s eyes on him the whole time. Even if he’d already decided he’d still wished for support. In the end, Nikandros had to give it to him, no matter how hesitantly.

“Please tell me you haven’t picked a ring that might insult his culture.”, Nikandros sighed, not willing to give any more approval just yet. Not before he hadn’t worked out every single possible threat he’d have to deal with.

The way Damen’s eyes lit up though told Nikandros all he needed to know. His king would be happy and that was worth all the trouble he’d have to go through to make this happen.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading!


End file.
